The Endeavour Award is given to a novel or single-author collection by a Pacific Northwest writer, and comes with an honorarium of $1,000. The 2016 judges were Gordon Van Gelder, Jack McDevitt, and Michaela Roessner. The deadline to submit titles for the 2017 award is February 15, 2017. For more information, see the official Endeavour Award website.

Crystal Huff, co-chair of the 75th Worldcon, resigned her position on November 19, 2016, citing career and family priorities. Huff worked for four years on the bid for Worldcon 75, which will be held August 9-13, 2017 in Helsinki, Finland. She will continue to work for the convention in a smaller role. Jukka Halme will remain as sole chairperson for the time being.

Several stories of possible genre interest made the shortlist for the Manchester Writing Competition, announced November 14, 2016.

Judge Nicholas Royle summarizes the stories:

“The God Quetzalcoatl Has Retired and Now Runs a Pub in North Manchester”, Michael Conley: The Mesoamerican god of wind and learning wakes up on the pool table of the Three Arrows pub and decides to stay and run the place.

“The Dark Instruments”, Laura Pocock: A man goes to out to his garage in the middle of the night to check on his tools and knives and whatever’s under that tarpaulin.

“Succubus”, Lucy Ribchester: A mechanic is killed in a street fight. The following morning, the taste of tequila in her mouth, Rebecca wakes up in bed next to him.

“The First Hard Rain”, Sophie Wellstood: Rachael joins her ex-husband and his mother to scatter her former father-in-law’s ashes over the M6: “It was his favourite motorway.”

“All This Concrete Beneath Your Feet”, D.W. Wilson: A man and his young son drive down the Alaskan Highway. Motels, diners and Mounties. What are they running from and where will they end up?

The competition, “designed to encourage new work and seek out the best creative writing from across the world,” includes £10,000 prizes and has both poetry and fiction categories. The winners will be honored in a ceremony on November 25, 2016 in Manchester. For the full shortlist, and to read the shortlisted works, see the official website.

Each National Book Award finalist receives $1,000, a medal, and a citation. The winner receives $10,000 and a bronze sculpture. 5 Under 35 honorees also receive a $1,000 prize. For more, including the complete lists of finalists, see the National Book Award site.

SF magazines Analog and Asimov’s are switching to a bimonthly schedule beginning in January 2017. Both currently publish ten issues per year, with eight regular issues and two “double” issues.

Asimov’s editor Sheila Williams explains in a forthcoming editorial that the magazines will now publish “six 208-page double issues” per year, a 16-page increase over current double issues. She expects the change will allow her to publish more novellas and a higher percentage of original cover art. Despite the change in publication schedule, she says readers “will receive the same number of pages of fiction as in the past,” and subscribers will “receive the same number of issue months” they purchased. Publishing bimonthly will allow them “to hold the current subscription prices a bit longer.” Both periodicals are published by Dell Magazines.

The EMP Museum in Seattle is changing its name to the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), officially launching on November 19, 2016 with a celebration open to the public. The new name “better reflects the museum’s vision for curating, exploring, and supporting creative works that shape and inspire our lives across many aspects of our culture.”

The winners of the 2016 Ignotus Awards (the Spanish equivalent of the Hugo Awards), honoring the best works published in Spain last year, have been announced. The awards were chosen by members of the annual HispaCon, and winners were announced at BCon – Hispacon (Barcelona Con) at a celebration gala Saturday November 5, 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. The award is sponsored by the Asociación Española de Fantasía, Ciencia Ficción y Terror (AEFCFT).

The European Science Fiction Society (ESFS) Hall of Fame Awards, Encouragement Awards, and Spirit of Dedication Awards winners were announced during the 38th Eurocon held November 4-6, 2016 in Barcelona, Spain.

Herbert W. Franke of Austria was named European Grandmaster. The title is awarded to outstanding figures in European science fiction and is decided by the ESFS board and convention organizing committee.

Other awards winners and nominees are below.

Hall of Fame Awards:

Hall of Fame awards are chosen by the European Committee, selected from a ballot of nominations submitted by national delegates. Winners receive an award plaque.

Best Author

Tom Crosshill (Latvia)

João Barreiros (Portugal)

John Connolly (Ireland)

Cristina Fernández Cubas (Spain)

Jean-Claude Dunyach (France)

Andreas Gruber (Austria)

Dave Hutchinson (United Kingdom)

Svyatoslav Loginov (Russia)

Lyubomir Nikolov-Narvi (Bulgaria)

Adam Roberts (United Kingdom, nominated by Ukraine)

Gheorghe Săsărman (Romania)

Johanna Sinisalo (Finland)

Dario Tonani (Italy)

Aleksandar Žiljak (Croatia)

Best Artist

Stephan Martinière (France)

Ninni Aalto (Finland)

Alex Andreev (Russia)

Igor Baranko (Ukraine)

Paolo Barbieri (Italy)

Lothar Bauer (Germany)

Adrian Chifu (Romania)

Enrique Corominas (Spain)

Esad T. Ribić (Croatia)

Will Simpson (Ireland)

Peter Stanimirov (Bulgaria)

Best Magazine

Bifrost (France)

Bang! (Portugal)

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Italy)

FEP (Bulgaria)

Hélice (Spain, nominated by Spain and Romania)

Milky Way (Israel, nominated by Russia)

Sirius B (Croatia)

XB-1 (Czech Republic)

Best Publisher

Nova (Ediciones B) (Spain)

L’Atalante (France)

Cheeky Frawg Books (USA, nominated by Russia)

Coimicí Gael (Ireland)

Delos Digital (Italy)

Hangar 7 (Croatia)

The Human Library (Bulgaria)

KSD (Ukraine)

Michael Haitel (Germany)

Septime Verlag (Austria)

Tracus Arte (Romania)

Best Promoter (tie)

James Bacon (Ireland)

Organizers of Archipelacon (Finland and Sweden, nominated by Russia)

Roberto Quaglia (Italy)

Grigor Gatchev (Bulgaria)

Michael Haulică (Romania)

Toni Jerrman (Finland)

Thomas LeBlanc (Germany)

Jean-Luc Rivera (France)

Sérgio Santos (Portugal)

Davor Šišović (Croatia)

Yura Shevela (Ukraine)

Mariano Villarreal (Spain)

Best Translator

Andrew Bromfield (United Kingdom, nominated by Russia)

Ona Frantz (Romania)

Annarita Guarnieri (Italy)

Bernhard Kempen (Germany)

Svetlana Komogorova-Komata (Bulgaria)

Sergii Legeza (Ukraine)

Patrick Marcel (France)

Igor Rendić (Croatia)

Pilar Ramírez Tello (Spain)

Encouragement Awards:

National delegates nominate a young writer or artist from each country to receive an Encouragement Award, which is presented by the ESFS Chair. This year’s recipients of the Encouragement Awards diploma are:

Juraj Belošević (Croatia)

Maria Boyle (Ireland)

Orshulya Farynyak (Ukraine)

Maria Gyuzeleva (Bulgaria)

Jan Hlávka & Jana Vybíralová (Czech Republic)

Alexandru Lamba (Romania)

Felicidad Martínez (Spain)

Kuschuj Nepoma (Russia)

Mark E. Pocha (Slovakia)

Rui Ramos (Portugal)

Melanie Vogeltanz (Austria)

Spirit of Dedication Awards:

Winners of the award are chosen by the vote of Eurocon participants. Each winner receives an award plaque.

Eurocon 2017 (U-Con) will be held June 16-18, 2017 at the Fritz Henssler Haus in Dortmund, Germany. Guests of honor will include Andreas Eschbach, Dave Hutchinson, Autun Purser, and Aleksander Žiljak. Membership registration for the event costs €40 until April 15, 2017, after which rates will go up. For more information, see the official Eurocon 2017 website.

The 40th Eurocon (Nemo 2018) will be held July 19-22, 2018 at the Dewailly Cloister in Amiens, France. The decision was made by vote on November 5, 2016 ​during Eurocon 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. Amiens is famous as the burial place of Jules Verne. The author lived in the city for many years, was elected to its town council, and died there in 1905.

Gabriel Thibodeau won the Diverse Writers Grant (for new and emerging writers from underrepresented and underprivileged groups) and Eden Royce won the Diverse Worlds Grant (for work that best presents a diverse world, regardless of the writer’s background) for 2016, given by the Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF). Each grant is for $500 and is intended “to foster the creation of speculative fiction work rich in diversity.”

Winners are chosen by a jury of SLF staff members. Grants are made possible by contributions from Ellen Wright (Senior Publicist, Hachette Book Group) and Faye Bi (Publicist at Simon & Schuster).